MSU Law Faculty in the News
New dean joins MSU College of Law
by Mark Sanchez | Business Review Western Michigan
Thursday July 17, 2008, 8:00 AM
The opportunity to mix legal education with other professional disciplines provided one of the lures for the new dean of Michigan State University's College of Law.
Joan Howarth began July 1 as dean of the MSU law school, coming from the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada Las Vegas where she had worked since 2001 as a professor and associate dean.
In East Lansing, Howarth welcomes the opportunity to further integrate the private Detroit College of Law that affiliated with MSU years ago.
"This is a terrific opportunity to take the traditions and the values and the heritage of the Detroit College of Law and continue that project," said Howarth, who helped build the Boyd School of Law that UNLV formed just a decade ago.
At MSU, there exist numerous opportunities to bring other academic areas into legal education.
For example, a student studying to become a criminal defense lawyer can benefit from lessons coordinated with MSU's criminal justice program, as could a law student focusing on corporate law gain value from joint offerings with the university's Eli Broad College of Business or on health law through cooperation with the College of Human Medicine.
"The sophistication of practices in all areas really demands the kind of interdisciplinary education that we can offer," Howarth said. "We have more and more opportunities for that kind of programming."
The 57-year-old Howarth succeeds Cliff Thompson, who had served as acting dean of the MSU College of Law since February 2007.
As with any leadership transition, Howarth's move into the dean's position provides her a chance to "take stock" in the law school, "and not in a narrow way.
"I want to take stock in what our opportunity is and make sure this law school is a significant player in this community and in the region beyond," she said.
"I'm a true believer in the importance of excellent lawyers to build communities and to help families and help economies to work well," she said. "That's what good lawyers are all about."
At the same time, Howarth wants to give more attention to looking ahead and doing more to anticipate the future needs of the legal profession.
"Nobody's needs (to put) attention to last year's problems," she said. "Where it's needed is where we're going if we're going to be successful tomorrow and five years from now."
A New Jersey native, Howarth earned her law degree in 1980 from the University of Southern California and began as a public defender. She started her career as a law professor in 1989.